A car accident may result in more than a delay in getting to your destination. You may find yourself dealing with injuries that force you to pause your current life.
Injuries may range from minor to those that change your lifestyle. These catastrophic injuries are due to irreversible damage to essential body systems. Discover more about the most common injures you may face after a crash.
Whiplash
A car crash often jolts the body front to back or side to side. This movement may cause tiny tears in the muscles of the neck. Whiplash is the diagnosis doctors give this kind of injury. The damage to the muscles is not apparent and challenging to diagnose with imaging studies. Pain, stiffness and burning with or without neck movement point to whiplash.
Brain injury
The skull shields the brain and protects it from injury. However, it is not always effective. If you hit your head on an object in a car, you may sustain a concussion or worse. Sometimes the brain moving inside the skull may cause bruising, bleeding and damage. A brain injury falls into the catastrophic category should the damage prove serious and permanent.
Fractures
Bone fractures are common in crashes. Some may prove severe, especially if there is a separation of the bone and piercing through the skin. Open compound fractures need immediate intervention to stop infection, bleeding and set bones. A surgeon may use hardware to rejoin the bone. The recovery process is slow and lengthy when an open compound fracture occurs.
Any damage to the body from a crash may prove difficult to overcome. You should take immediate measures and have a complete checkup in the hours following an accident to ensure all your injuries receive attention.
